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Thursday, June 28, 2012

And now for one of the most confusing comments of today's Supreme Court ruling:

Most of y'all know how much the WUW? office is entertained by Facebook posts after some major political announcement, but this one is as much confusing as it is entertaining. A friend posted how "freedom" (which we know is an empty political term) is now in jeopardy because of a "mandate" (which is quickly becoming an empty word) for those who earn more than 133% of the poverty threshold has been upheld as constitutional and punishable in the form of a tax. But what is confusing is that this mandate is an attempt to reduce the overall cost of health care by requiring those that can afford to, to carry the minimum amount of health insurance, and the friend that posted this status is a devout Christian.

Correct us if we are incorrect, but didn't Jesus command his followers to care for the sick and needy? Isn't that the goal of this bill... to create a system, within the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, that provides basic health care for all of its citizens?

Which leads to the most important question, how the fuck is a law that is actually close to the tenants of biblical Christianity a form of church persecution? And if it is, how in the world would a church that believes that its adherents should care for the sick and needy going to thrive for opposing an official law that upholds its principles?

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought that we should be thinking about new ways to make the world a better place. But then again if you believe that this world is going to "burn" eventually and you will be safe floating in the clouds of heaven with your maker, then why in the hell would you care about what happens to people in the prequel to heaven.

Persecuting the church for not adhering to the commandments of Jesus,WhatUpWally?

By the way... If you would actually like to read the Supreme Court's ruling on this subject instead of being a mouth piece for the religious right feel free to click here.

We get it, Linkin Park may be one of the best selling bands of our generation but they will forever be linked to the 00s rap rock clowns like Limp Bizkit (even though Rollin with Method Man was a dope track), Pappa Roach, Insane Clown Posse, Korn (who we actually like as well), POD, Kid Rock, Crazy Town, and many other bands that we love to laugh about in retrospect.

However, I can be remember the exact moment that I heard Hybrid Theory and I thought it sounded like little angels scream - and rapping - in my ears. I was working at Abercrombie, folding clothes after we closed and some dude threw on the CD, I thought my life had changed.

To put this in perspective you must understand that, like many white kids that came of age in the late 80s/ early 90s, I had been listening to Metallica, Public Enemy, Warrant, Too Short, The Ghetto Boys, Poison, Megadeth, and 2 Live Crew. I loved all sorts of music but, at that time, if white kids listened to rap music they were labeled as wiggers or wannabes - there was no middle ground between white and black music. We would sit around and hypothesize about how a white kid could do rap music without sounding like Vanilla Ice. Of course there was no Eminem, Mac Miller, Asher Roth, LMNO, or Atmosphere at this time. We had talked about what it would sound like if we did rap music but as rock music but thought that would sound cheesy, in fact most of it did.

But Linkin Park was different. Mike Shinoda was an art school kid in Pasadena, California connected to the west coast underground hip hop scene. He and Mr. Hahn were authentic hip hop heads and Chester's voice screamed with an eery elegance that made even metal heads blush. This was something different, something creative, something that encapsulated the post modern ethos of generation... well what ever the fuck our generation should be called. After the release of Reanimation, I decided that this was the best group of our era then they released Meteora, then the Jay-Z mashup (which was Shinoda's brainchild) and thus solidified themselves as the shiznizzle.

To this day I get hyped every time I read that LP is working on a new project. They have refused to stay within a box or work within a formula and you know that when you unwrap that vinyl, every track will be invigorating. As I streamed Living Things on Itunes last week, I had the same sense of satisfaction. Here is to progress and creativity. Enjoy!Hybrid, Living, and Meteoric Blogging,WhatUpWally?

There is one building that tells the best story of Cincinnati. The story is about a city that sits in the cross section of economic prosperity and depravity, a city that was a beacon of capitalist expansion and the result of the the ruthlessness of the capitalist class. Cincinnati was a final destination of freedom during slavery but it has since become a symbol of racial segregation. A city of hope and despair but also a city of strength and resilience.

This is the old Crosley radio factory that sits to the west of I75 just north of downtown Cincinnati.

Friday, June 22, 2012

A good friend of mine posted an article by the Christian fundamentalist preacher John Piper, “There Is No Demilitarized Zone in the Issue of Homosexuality." (Click the link the read the article). We will get to the article in a moment but what eased the anger in the WUW? office was a good laugh about the App that Pastor Piper has advertised on his website:

That is right homies, almost five centuries after Martin Luther pinned his 95 Theses to the church door and freed christian's from the domination of the Roman Catholic Church, we have come full circle. Now you don't have to buy forgiveness under the authority of Rome, you can simply download an app and allow Mr. Piper to instruct you on how to properly desire god.

Ok... Now to the main point, one of Piper's commandment on how to properly desire god is to condemn homosexuals.

In a series of sermons, at his Bethlehem Baptist Mega Church in Minneapolis, titled: Homosexuality, Human Relations, and the Challenges to Evangelism, Piper instructs his army of god fearing believers on how to properly "deal with" the gays. Adequately echoed by a friend of mine of Facebook, Spencer Barfus argues:

"Christians who know the truth and love sinners don't fear homosexuals...they fear what God will do to homosexuals who continue in their sin. And so, we speak out against such things, not because we want to make people feel bad, but because we care for them. We want them to know the truth so that they can be set free like we have. God is faithful to all His promises, and does not lie. Jesus died on the cross to set people free from sins like homosexuality."

As many christian's seem to do, Spencer hides his bigotry behind the bible providing a eulogistic covering by claiming that christian hatred of homosexuals is a form of love. Yeah... that is what they say... condemning people for who they love is a form of love.

I will let y'all read the article for yourselves but I would like to comment on one thing Piper says:

In April 2012, Questlove, of the Legendary Roots Crew, compiled some of the best musicians to perform a genre bending experience meant create a live simulation of how people experience music while listening to their Ipod on shuffle.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

As if the complex and interwoven connection (or disconnection) of the internet isn't strange enough, we can find comfort in the fact that it simply reflects the peculiar nature of we humans. If we add the obsessive nature in which we connect ourselves to celebrities and athletes, we are only left to ask what exactly it is that we are covering over in our postmodern age.

Maybe the unrealistic IPO of Facebook represented our need to connect, to be part of the community of mankind, and attempt to realize the fulness of life that is only available in a fully developed society. In Eclipse of Reason (1942), Max Horkheimer states:

The fully developed individual is the consummation of a fully developed society. The emancipation of the individual is not an emancipation from society, but the deliverance of atomization, an atomization that may reach its peak in periods of collectivization and mass culture.

Atomization refers to the separation of individuals as part of the collective of individuals into separate atoms - as we have referred to in an earlier post Capitalism's Inner Logic of Self Destruction. Following the separation of individuals into human cogs in the division of labor, we moved into suburbs surrounded by people that looked like us but separated by white picket fences. We now live in communities but not in community. Facebook and Twitter are simply post-modern manifestations of an attempt to reconnect our common humanity.

It was about this time last year that we learned about a Bravo reality show in Dallas that was about to be aired (Read the blog here). Although we were initially skeptical, there was no way we could have predicted just how horrible it would actually be. We must admit that we could only stomach two episodes before we decided to not watch the show and only follow Kelly Rasberry on twitter as she demolished the entire cast.

From the producer's standpoint we can't help but wonder what his or her plan was... "Let's find the most uninteresting, shallow, kind of successful but not really, but good looking people in the great city of Dallas. Then we should plan some even more uninteresting scenes, manufacture a crappy love story, a girl with a baby, and a girl that is 30 but looks 50 and is obsessed with animals. How could this not be a hit?"

-- We get that we sound extremely negative right now --

The next thought was where could they find a group of horrible individuals (excluding the football kicker who actually seemed likeable)? Did they hold auditions? Did they ask for bad recommendations? Did they go to Rio Room and Standard Pour and just pick a couple people?

Monday, June 18, 2012

Jessica, WUW?'s most recent addition, grew up in small town just outside of Chicago. She argues that the two best bands of all time are The Roots (we all agree) and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (we all laugh). So with this in mind, it is not a shock that she loves this new band - cosigned by Questlove of the Roots - who combine hip hop, rock, jazz, soul, funk, and a little bit of the beloved ska sound to combine something smooth but exciting.

They sound something like what the Gym Class Heroes would if GCH were all talented musicians. If you like what you hear, check out the article in the New York Times and then watch their energetic performance on Conan.

Friday, June 15, 2012

When two legends get together and make music (regardless of their differing genres) the only outcome can be magic. These two tracks that Jack White and Detroit hip hop legend Black Milk put down are nothing less than dupey dope dopeness.

As if that isn't enough to start your weekend off right, Black Milk also recorded a live set, with a laive band, at Jack's Third Man Record Studio in Nashvegas.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

It is still shocking to us that most people in the Nati are not aware of this dope 3 day festival taking place on the river July 13-15. Needless to say, we are hyped to see the headliners Jane's Addiction, Weezer, and Deathcab. But we are equally excited to see Austin, Texas natives Bright Light Social hour and Cinci natives The Seedy Seeds as well as Passion Pit, Ra Ra Riot, RJD2, Manchester Orchestra, YAWN, Lights, Maps & Atlases, Neon Trees, Dan Deacon, and Now Now.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Fans of WhatUpWally? often find our blog from funny places but this search keyword takes the cake. It may not surprise many of you that out of the three white people that are actually employed by WUW?, two of us are often "accused" of tryna be black. I am not actually sure what that means... but here are some more interesting keywords that have led people to one of our writer's academia.edu page:

It seems that people are still intrigued by the fact that white people listen to hip hop music

Monday, June 11, 2012

You know how we love to rep the Cincinnati hip hop scene, so here is a new track by The Nati's own Cas Metah featuring underground superstar Copywrite. Check out the free ep Mic Chord Nation after the jump.

Before destroying the blog scene, the WUW? crew formed as a hip hop production and DJ team. After producing beats for the smallest hip hop acts in the world, we retired from the hip hop game and took up the great art of blogging. As the great saying goes... those who can't produce... blog.

Despite our high level of non-success, we did lay the ground work for indie rock sampling in hip hop and pioneered a new path for the postmodern production of today's hip hop world.

We are pleased to release, for the first time, the WUW? greatest non hits. Hope you enjoy!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

I get it... Texans don't like homosexuals, non-Christians, or Democrats, but don't you think it is time to get over it. A good buddy decided to purchase a Mini Cooper (not the WUW? crew's first pick for a car) and took an always entertaining Facebook poll to get some thoughts on it. We often talk about overt forms of sexism, racism, homophobia when it presents itself in pop culture but it is probably as important to address the everyday ways in which these societal viruses manifest themselves in language.

While the FB poll participants were divided between the awesomeness and terribleness of the Mini Cooper, we would like to call you attention to the two respondents that substituted the adjective "gay" for terribleness.

Kevin Townes, male from Iowa and residing in Dallas, Texas, asserted that the Mini was not only "gay" but that it was "super gay" - what exactly does it mean for a vehicle to be super gay? Similarly, Tiffany Kimbrough, from Nacogdoches, Texas believes that the vehicle "screams gay" and further qualifies her statement with a commentary on masculinity by stating "real men drive trucks."

In summary, we can conclude that part of being male is the ownership of a truck and that the Mini Cooper, as "gay" as it is, prefers only to date other Mini Coopers.

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Monday, June 4, 2012

Continuing with our Nas theme of the day, we have spent a few hours in the office arguing about the best Nas songs of all time... here are a few that we decided on. We wanted to include every song from the hip hop classic Illmatic but we restrained ourselves.